Legal Observing Program

NLG-LA works to ensure the legal and practical access to demonstrations in Southern California by regularly providing legal observers at demonstrations to observe and document potentially unlawful or unjustified interference with demonstrators’ rights by law enforcement. Our legal observers are all volunteers, and are comprised of attorneys, legal workers, law students, and activists. All observers must be at least 18 years old and undergo an NLG legal observer training.

To request legal observers at your action or protest, please complete the above form as far in advance of the action as possible. Please be prepared to provide detailed information regarding the protest. We only send out requests to our network of legal observers after a request has been properly fielded by NLG staff and sufficient information has been provided.

Following a request from organizers to deploy legal observers, the following criteria will be used to prioritize our limited resources: